Newslinks for Friday 22nd November 2013

Bad news for Cameron 1: The Mail takes aim over unemployment, immigration and the EU

“Is it too much, therefore, to ask Mr Cameron to stand up for our national interest? If he did, he might even receive the gratitude of the voters in the next election. Those voters know that the country cannot afford to make another ‘spectacular mistake’. Why can’t the Tories understand that too?” – Daily Mail Leader

“Hospitals have made no improvements in patient safety or care in the three years since the Mid Staffordshire scandal, the health watchdog said yesterday. In a scathing verdict, the Care Quality Commission said the number of warning notices it had handed to NHS trusts for putting patients at risk had more than doubled over the past year.” – Daily Mail

Good news for Cameron 1: Housing market upturn set to help cut the deficit

“Britain will borrow £15billion less than expected this year as the recovering economy and housing market swell Treasury coffers, figures suggested yesterday.The Government borrowed just under £8.1billion last month, £164million less than in October 2012 – thanks partly to a large rise in stamp duty receipts.” – Daily Mail

Good news for Cameron 2: Lib Dems go red in the face over green comments

“A leading Liberal Democrat suggested David Cameron was ‘full of c**p’ last night for wanting to ditch green levies on energy bills. The Coalition feud over environmental issues boiled over after the Daily Mail revealed that the Prime Minister has privately told ministers to ‘get rid of all this green c**p’ – a reference to the green taxes which are blamed for driving up energy bills.” – Daily Mail

The Yellows are mad to batter families with higher bills – The Sun Says (£)

Good news for Cameron 3: Ed Balls tries, and fails, to distance himself from the Co-Op Bank

“Questions intensified over the opposition’s cosy relationship with the bank after it emerged that Mr Balls had bragged about his role in rubber-stamping legislation that paved the way for a disastrous takeover deal at the Co-op. He also accepted a £50,000 donation from the bank in March 2012, when Flowers was the bank’s chairman. There were also mounting questions about the extraordinary special treatment the bank gave to Labour – extending ‘soft’ loans with preferential rates of interest and admitting that other clients would never be allowed to keep on borrowing so much.” – Daily Mail

Scots enjoy £1,300 per head more spending than the rest of us

“Scotland receives more than £1,600 extra per head than the English, exposing the massive benefits they enjoy by being part of the Union…Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, said: ‘These figures demonstrate that the people of Scotland continue to see a real financial benefit of over £1,300 per person compared to the UK average.” – Daily Mail

200 years after Wilberforce, shock as slaves are found in London

“Three women have walked to freedom from a South London house where they were held for 30 years in what police described as the worst case of modern-day slavery ever uncovered in Britain. Police said on Thursday the youngest woman, a 30-year-old British citizen, had had “no contact with the outside world” and was probably born in captivity, possibly within the house in Lambeth.” – The Guardian

Turkey is slipping towards Islamist autocracy

“Turkey is no stranger to anti-democratic tendencies. Much of Mr Erdogan’s success rests on his ability to harness the yearnings of a conservative majority disenfranchised for decades by an autocratic, military-backed elite. But he is in danger now of creating a new autocracy.” – The Times Leader (£)

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